Fox has a big, fat surprise for bride

Fox executives are hoping for a hit on the order of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” with tonight’s premiere of the totally unrelated “My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance,” which comes on right after the season premiere of “American Idol.”

“Fiance,” which premieres at 9 p.m., is from the team behind Fox’s hit “Joe Millionaire,” and it furthers that show’s practical-joke genre, in which several single women were wooed by the construction worker posing as a rich man.

In “Fiance,” a beautiful bride-to-be introduces her overweight, uncouth fiance to her family and friends and tells them she is going to marry him. They are unaware that she is playing a practical joke in an attempt to win a million dollars. To score the prize she and her family must make it all the way through the wedding ceremony and final “I do’s”.

But the “bride” is unaware that her “fiance,” who she believes is a reality-show contestant in on her joke, is really an actor who is fooling her too.

Some critics who have seen clips of the series that show the “bride’s” family in various stages of distress and emotion, failed to see the humor, calling the premise and its participants cruel. But executive producer Chris Cowan Friday described the series as funny, with dramatic moments too.

Randi, the 23-year-old Scottsdale, Ariz., first-grade teacher posing as the “bride,” also disputes the charges of cruelty. But she admitted feeling “resentment” about being a victim of the practical joke played on her.

Whether Fox will next develop “My Big Fat Fake Divorce” is still uncertain.